Nathaniel Tarn
Nathaniel Tarn (born June 30, 1928) is an American poet , essayist, anthropologist, and translator. Life Youth and education Tarn was born in Paris to a French mother and a British father. He lived in Paris until age 7, then in Belgium (Lycée d’Anvers) until age 11. Tarn was educated at Clifton College in Bristol, England. He graduated in history and English from King's College, Cambridge. He returned to Paris and, after some journalism and radio work, discovered anthropology at the Musée de l’Homme, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes and the Collège de France. A Fulbright grant took him to Yale University and then the University of Chicago, from which Robert Redfield sent him to Guatemala for his doctoral fieldwork, 1951-1952. He completed his graduate studies at the London School of Economics, 1953-1958. Career In 1958, a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation administered by the Royal Institute of International Affairs sent him to Burma for 18 months, after which he became lecturer in South East Asian anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, 1960-1967. Tarn published his debut collection of poetry, Old Savage/Young City with Jonathan Cape, London in 1964; followed by a translation of Pablo Neruda’s Heights of Macchu Picchu in 1968, and began building a new poetry program at Cape. He left anthropology in 1967. From 1967 to 1969, he worked at Cape as general editor of Cape Editions and as a founding director of the Cape-Goliard Press, which specialized in contemporary American poetry with emphasis on Charles Olson, Robert Duncan, Louis Zukofsky and their peers and successors. He brought a great many French, other European, and Latin American titles to Cape, and made many visits to the U.S. as a Cape Editor. He taught English at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the summer of 1969. In 1970, with a principal interest in the American literary scene, he immigrated to the United States as visiting professor of Romance languages at Princeton University, and eventually became a citizen. Later he moved to Rutgers. Since then he has taught English and American Literature, epic poetry, and folklore the Universities of Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico, and Manchuria (PRC), while reading and lecturing all over he world: Paris, Heidelberg, Freiburg, Berlin, Rome, Messina, Prague, Budapest, Sydney, and Melbourne. He has set foot in every state of the U.S., with especially long study in Alaska. Extensive travels over the years in all 7 continents has informed his poetry from the start. As poet, literary & cultural critic (2 volumes: “Views from the Weaving Mountain”, 1991, and “The Embattled Lyric”, 2007), translator (he was the earliest to render Victor Segalen’s “Stèles” into English, continued work on Neruda, Latin American and French poets) and editor (with many magazines), Tarn has published some 30 books and booklets in his various disciplines. His work has been translated into 10 foreign languages. In 1985, he took early retirement as professor emeritus of poetry, comparative literature & anthropology from Rutgers University, and has since lived near Santa Fe, New Mexico. His interests range from bird watching, gardening, classical music, opera & ballet, and much varied collecting, to aviation and world history. Publications Poetry *''Old Savage/Young City''. London: Cape, 1964; New York: Random House, 1966 *''Penguin Modern Poets''. London: Penguin Books, 1966 *''The Beautiful Contradictions''. London: Cape Goliard Press, 1969; New York: Random House, 1970. *''October: A Sequence of Ten Poems Followed by Requiem Pro Duabus Filiis Israel''. London: Trigram Press, 1969. *''A Nowhere for Vallejo: Choices, October''. New York, Random House, 1971; London, Cape, 1972. *''Lyrics for the Bride of God''. New York: New Directions, 1975; London: Cape, 1975. *''The House of Leaves''. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1976. *''From Alashka: The Ground of Our Great Admiration of Nature'' (with Janet Rodney). London: Permanent Press, 1977 . *''Atitlan / Alashka: New and selected poems'' (the *''Alashka*'' with Janet Rodney). Boulder, CO: Brillig Works Press, 1979. *''Landsongs''. 1982. *''At the Western Gates''. Santa Fe, NM: Tooth of Time Press, 1985. *''Palenque: Selected Poems 1972-1984''. London: Oasis/Shearsman Press, 1986. *''Three Letters from the City: the St. Petersburg Poems''. Santa Fe, NM: The Weaselsleeves Press, 2001; St. Petersburg: Borey Art Center, 2001. *''Selected Poems: 1950-2000''. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2002. *''Avia: A Poem of International Air Combat, 1939-1945''. Exeter, UK: Shearsman Books, 2008. *''Ins and Outs of the Forest Rivers''. New York: New Directions, 2008. *''Where Babylon Ends''. London: Cape Goliard Press, 1968; New York: Grossman, 1968. *''The Silence''. Milan, Italy: M'Arte, 1970. *''The Persephones''. Santa Barbara, CA: Tree, 1974. *''The Microcosm''. Milwaukee, WI: Membrane Press. 1977. *''Birdscapes, with Seaside''. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow Press, 1978. *''The Forest''. With Janet Rodney. Mount Horeb, WI: Perishable Press, 1978. *''Weekends in Mexico''. London: Oxus Press, 1982. *''The Desert Mothers''. Grenada, MI: Salt Works Press, 1984. *''Seeing America First''. Minneapolis, Coffee House Press, 1989. *''The Mothers of Matagalpa''. London, Oasis Press, 1989. *''Drafts For: The Army Has Announced That From Now On Body Bags Will Be Known As "Human Remains Pouches" . Parkdale, OR, Trout Creek Press, 1992. *''Flying the Body. Los Angeles, Arundel Press, 1993 *''The Architextures: 1988-1994''. Tucson, Chax Press, 2000. *''Recollections of Being''. Cambridge, UK, and Sydney: Salt Publishing, 2004. Non-fiction *''Views from the Weaving Mountain; Selected Essays in Poetics & Anthropology''. Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1991. *''Scandals in the House of Birds: Priests & Shamans in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala" . New York, Marsilio Publishers, 1997.'' *''The Embattled Lyric; Essays & Conversations in Poetics & Anthropology'', with a biographical & bibliographical essay by, and a conversation with, Shamoon Zamir. Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2007. Translated *Victor Segalen, Stelae. Santa Barbara, CA: Unicorn Press, 1963 . *Pablo Neruda, The Heights of Macchu Picchu. London, Cape, 1966. *''Con Cuba: An anthology of Cuban poetry of the last sixty years''. London, Cape Goliard Press, 1969. *Pablo Neruda, Selected Poems: A bilingual edition. London, Cape, 1970. *Pablo Neruda, Selected poems. London, Penguin Books, 1975 . Edited *Natasha Tarn, A Multitude of One: Poems. New York: Grenfell Press, 1994. Audio / video *''I Think This May Be Eden'' (CD; with music by Billy Panda). Nashville, TN: Small Press Distributors, 1997. See also * List of British poets * List of U.S. poets References Critical studies * Roberto Sanesi in Le Belle Contradizzioni, Milan, Munt Press, 1973 * "Nathaniel Tarn Symposium" in Boundary 2 (Binghamton, NY.), Fall 1975 * "The House of Leaves" by A. Kingsley Weatherhead, in Credences 4 (Kent, OH.), 1977 * Ted Enslin and Rochelle Ratner, in American Book Review 2 (New York, NY), 5, 1980 * Translating Neruda by John Felstiner, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1980 * "America as Desired: Nathaniel Tarn's Poetry of the Outsider as Insider" by Doris Sommer, in American Poetry I (Albuquerque, NM. ), 4, 1984 * "II Mito come Metalinguaggio nella Poesia de Nathaniel Tarn" by Fedora Giordano, in Letteratura d'America (Rome), 5(22), 1984. * George Economou, in Sulfur (Ypsilanti, MI.), 14, 1985. * Gene Frumkin, in Artspace (Albuquerque. NM.), 10(l), 1985. * Lee Bartlett, in Talking Poetry, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1987 * "The Sun Is But a Morning Star" by Lee Bartlett, in Studies in West Coast Poetry and Poetics, Albuquerque, University of New Mexico Press, 1989. * “An Aviary of Tarns” by Eliot Weinberger, in Written Reaction, New York, Marsilio Publishing, 1996 * Shamoon Zamir: "Bringing the World to Little England: Cape Editions, Cape Goliard and Poetry in the Sixties. An Interview with Nathaniel Tarn. With an afterword by Tom Raworth," in E.S. Shaffer, ed., Comparative Criticism, vol 19: "Literary Devolution." Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 263–286, 1997. *Shamoon Zamir: "On Anthropology & Poetry: an Interview with Nathaniel Tarn," Boxkite, no.1, Sydney, Australia, 1998. *Shamoon Zamir: "Scandals in the House of Anthropology: notes towards a reading of Nathaniel Tarn" in Cross Cultural Poetics, no.5, (Minneapolis, MN.), 1999, pp. 99–122. *Brenda Hillman: Review of “Selected Poems” in Jacket magazine #28, (internet) Sydney, Australia, 1999. *Joseph Donahue: Review of “The Architextures” First Intensity #16, 2001 (Lawrence, KS). *Peter O’Leary: Review of “The Architectures” in XCP Cross Cultural Poetics #12, 2003 (Minneapolis, MN). *Martin Anderson: Review of “Recollections of Being” in Jacket magazine #36, (internet) Sydney, Australia, 2008. *Daniel Bouchard: Conversation with NT, in Zoland Poetry #3, 2009 (Hanover, NH): Steerforth Press, 2009. *Isobel Armstrong: Review of “Avia” in Tears in the Fence #50, Blanford Forum, Dorset, UK, 2009. *Joseph Donahue: review of “Ins & Outs of the Forest Rivers” in “A Nathaniel Tarn Tribute”: Jacket magazine #39, (internet) Sydney, Australia, 2010. *Richard Deming: Essay on “The Embattled Lyric” & “Selected Poems” in “A Nathaniel Tarn Tribute”: Jacket magazine #39 (internet) Sydney, Australia, 2010. *Lisa Raphals: Reading NT’s “House of Leaves” in “A Nathaniel Tarn Tribute”: Jacket #39 (internet) Sydney, Australia, 2010. Fonds *Nathaniel Tarn papers at Stanford University Libraries Notes External links ;Poems *"Ancestors" *Nathaniel Tarn at the Poetry Foundation. ;Audio / video *Nathaniel Tarn at PennSound ;Books *Nathaniel Tarn at Amazon.com *comprehensive list of Tarn's work ;About *Tarn info from Shearsman Books * Tarn’s analytic approach to lyric poetry yields hopeful results, Chicago Maroon. *Review of Tarn's Selected Poems 1950–2000 * “Review: Scandals in the House of Birds”. Zamir Shamoon (1998). * “Flight from ‘The Ten Thousand Things’ ”. Martin Anderson (2008). http://www.jacketmagazine.com/36/r-tarn-rb-anderson-m.shtml * Nathaniel Tarn: Avia. * ‘Ins and Outs of the Forest Rivers’ (Review). Joseph Donahue (2009). http://jacketmagazine.com/39/tarn-donahue-ins-outs.shtml Category:1928 births Category:Living people Category:Alumni of the University of Cambridge Category:American poets Category:American people of French descent Category:American people of British descent Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:University of Paris alumni Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:American academics